‘World’s heaviest woman’ dies months after starting weight-loss quest

MUMBAI, India – A woman thought to be the world’s heaviest has died Monday, reports the AP, roughly eight months after being removed from her home in Egypt and taken to Mumbai via cargo plane.

Eman Ahmed Abd El Aty, 37, was said to originally weigh some 1,100 pounds before undergoing bariatric surgery in India, reports the BBC, which cites local media reports that claimed she had dropped 660 pounds as a result (her family disputed this in the midst of a dustup with the Indian doctors who originally treated her).

A statement from the Abu Dhabi hospital where she has been receiving care since May described her cause of death as being from weight-related conditions including heart disease and kidney dysfunction, reports the Times of India.

Abd El Aty’s family said, prior to her leaving for treatment in Mumbai in February, she hadn’t left her home in 25 years and her extreme weight had forced her to crawl instead of walk by age 11.

It wasn’t an easy endeavor to transport Abd El Aty to India, a trip that cost around $125,000 and required the aforementioned cargo plane and a custom-modified truck, which she was lowered into by crane.

Her UAE doctors tell the National “Her diet was right, and nothing could have been done differently — so we were all very surprised when she started to go downhill over the previous three to four days.”

Al Arabiya notes she turned 37 earlier this month and was permitted to eat ice cream as part of the celebration.